The service sector jobs that have increased in importance differ in some significant respects from traditional manufacturing jobs. Service industries have a higher incidence of part-time and temporary workers, rely more on unpaid overtime and make greater use of flexible work arrangements. At the same time, the proportion of workers with at least a university degree is, on average, higher in services than in manufacturing, suggesting that work is becoming more knowledge-intensive. An examination of labour shifts alongside a previous analysis that used Census data to determine the knowledge intensity of different industries indicates that structural change is indeed supporting Canada's evolution towards a knowledge-based economy
A decomposition of labour compensation growth over 1976–79 to 2001–05 resulted in findings that were generally similar to those derived from the shift-share analysis of productivity growth.
